382 GESILA NNEKA UZUKWU With regard to purity issues, the domestic, social, and religious relationships between a Jew and a Gentile, a Jewish male and a Jewish female, and between a Jewish free born and a Jewish slave (ignorant person), are very much in check. From the point of view of holiness, a Jewish man stands higher above a Gentile, a Jewish woman and a Jewish slave. In the context of fulfilling the Law, a Jewish male considers himself sacred; he is set apart and should not be defiled by the “other, the polluted, the unholy” 21. If the other is indeed a “radically separable and separate entity” 22 as questioned by Jonathan Boyarin and if “separation in fact cannot ultimately tolerate difference” 23 as suggested by Keller, then a Jewish male is bound to keep his distance from those who are considered the “other” in order to keep his soul divine and pure. Our third and final observation concerns the question of how rabbinic Judaism reflects Jewish traditions and heritage after the second Temple period, and how such traditions and heritage are further defined and expressed in statements like the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic sources. As already hinted above, the use of rabbinic tradition for understanding second Temple Judaism or rabbinic Judaism is certainly not easy. Given the problem of Sitz im Leben and Sitz im Literatur of rabbinic materials, we cannot adequately decide the extent to which the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic texts relate to the system of thought, religious and social practices of Judaism of the Second Temple period or of rabbinic Judaism. In addition, there is the problem of identifying the origin of the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic sources. Although scholars attempted to read the three blessings against the background of the three expressions of gratitude attributed to Socrates and Plato respectively, we have sacredness of places, persons or things consecrated and set apart as sacred by God’s presence or contact with sacred places. It also includes the holiness of God, of his divine activity, of his name as sacred, inviolable and separate from all defilement. BDB also mentions that the original idea behind this word çdq is that of separation or withdrawal. C . KELLER, “Roundtable Discussion: Feminist Reflections on 21 Separation and Unity in Jewish Theology”, JFSR 1 (1985) 118-121, 120. J. BOYARIN, “The Other within and the Other Without”, The Other in 22 Jewish Thought and History. Constructions of Jewish Culture and Identity (eds. L.J. SILBERSTEIN – R.L. COHN) (New York 1995) 424-452, 424. KELLER, “Roundtable”,120. 23